Redskins Nation is a half-hour show devoted to giving fane unfiltered access to the day's events at Redskins Park. Hosted by Larry Michael, the show features Redskins players, coaches, and sit-down interviews with team officials. (Show re-airs at 11:30 p.m./7:30 a.m. daily)

Redskins Nation is a half-hour show devoted to giving fane unfiltered access to the day's events at Redskins Park. Hosted by Larry Michael, the show features Redskins players, coaches, and sit-down interviews with team officials. (Show re-airs at 11:30 p.m./7:30 a.m. daily)

Redskins Nation is a half-hour show devoted to giving fane unfiltered access to the day's events at Redskins Park. Hosted by Larry Michael, the show features Redskins players, coaches, and sit-down interviews with team officials. (Show re-airs at 11:30 p.m./7:30 a.m. daily)

Redskins Nation is a half-hour show devoted to giving fane unfiltered access to the day's events at Redskins Park. Hosted by Larry Michael, the show features Redskins players, coaches, and sit-down interviews with team officials. (Show re-airs at 11:30 p.m./7:30 a.m. daily)

Redskins Nation is a half-hour show devoted to giving fane unfiltered access to the day's events at Redskins Park. Hosted by Larry Michael, the show features Redskins players, coaches, and sit-down interviews with team officials. (Show re-airs at 11:30 p.m./7:30 a.m. daily)

Redskins Nation is a half-hour show devoted to giving fane unfiltered access to the day's events at Redskins Park. Hosted by Larry Michael, the show features Redskins players, coaches, and sit-down interviews with team officials. (Show re-airs at 11:30 p.m./7:30 a.m. daily)

Redskins Nation is a half-hour show devoted to giving fane unfiltered access to the day's events at Redskins Park. Hosted by Larry Michael, the show features Redskins players, coaches, and sit-down interviews with team officials. (Show re-airs at 11:30 p.m./7:30 a.m. daily)

Redskins Nation is a half-hour show devoted to giving fane unfiltered access to the day's events at Redskins Park. Hosted by Larry Michael, the show features Redskins players, coaches, and sit-down interviews with team officials. (Show re-airs at 11:30 p.m./7:30 a.m. daily)

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Scroll through the Washington Redskins 2013 squad and you’ll find schools that you probably didn’t know have football programs or at the very least didn’t have any NFL products.

You won’t find Notre Dame. You won’t find Michigan. And you won’t find the 19-time National Champion Alabama Crimson Tide. What you will find though is Monmouth University, a small, private institution located in New Jersey that was the home of recently signed safety Jose Gumbs.

Gumbs, who’s simply just trying to learn the terminology of Jim Haslett’s defense, has another difficult obstacle in getting comfortable here—balancing friendship with rivalry.

While I don’t have any charts to show you the percentage of each university’s alumni in the eight NFL divisions (sorry mathematics whizzes), I can tell you that 67 percent of Monmouth’s NFL players call the NFC East home.

–Jose Gumbs, Washington Redskins

–Miles Austin, Dallas Cowboys

–Chris Hogan, Buffalo Bills

I know I know it’s only three players, but football is a numbers game so it’s going to slide.

Monmouth’s average enrollment ranges somewhere around the 4,500-5,000 range on a yearly basis, and the football team, is a just a tiny portion of the already small student population.

Interview any football player and they’ll tell you that their teammates are like family. Ask any football fan, casual and expert alike, and they’ll name the deepest rooted rivalry in the NFL is the Redskins versus Cowboys.

It’s a dilemma Gumbs currently faces with fellow Monmouth Hawk Miles Austin (who played there before he arrived) being on the Redskins’ archrival.

Sure you’re part of the same alumni network and you could talk for hours about campus traditions, but this is a matchup that has stemmed an everlasting hatred.

Gumbs, who split his time between the New Orleans Saints and Kansas City Chiefs last season, knows though that its business as usual when the whistle blows. For 60 minutes you are a nemesis.

“He used to come down to school and show love out there,” Gumbs said of Austin. “When it came down to doing conditioning tests, he would come work out with me. We did some one-on-ones, too.”

Football is football to me. Being on an opposing team, you’re the enemy, but at the same time, he is my boy. When it comes down to playing between the whistles, it’s all business.”

2 Responses
to “Jose Gumbs: Balancing Friendship, Rivalry”

Great story on Jose and other Monmouth UNIVERSITY NFL Players! One thing- have them fix the roster because it says he’s from Monmouth College, which is a DIII team in Illinois. Gumbs, Miles Austin and Chris Hogan all went to Monmouth University in New Jersey- a future member of the Big South Conference.